Cleanskin

I recently caught this film, billed as an action/drama/suspense flick, quite by accident, and immediately wondered why I saw no promo for it...

First off, it was nice to see Sean Bean, who has played some bad ass bad guys (eg. Patriot Games, Goldeneye), get to play the bad ass good guy, Ewan. No other actors were known to me, except for Charlotte Rampling, who was in the short Ghost Recon: Alpha. This was not a disadvantage as all the major and minor characters played their parts well. Rampling in particular did well as the pseudo "M" character.

The movie begins with more drama than action, and enough keeps going wrong, that you begin to wonder if Ewan still should be in this "game." But his ruthlessness (again, pseudo Bond) proves that he should. The plot is heavy with the middle east and terrorism situation and there is a considerable amount of socio-political undercurrent; there is plenty of ruthlessness to go around.

A fair amount of time is used to build suspense and establish motivations, all going to show once again how violence for revenge sake, or any sake for that matter, perpetuates. Pay attention to where there are flashbacks or you might get lost in the details.

The fight scenes seem graphic, not because of blood and gore, so much as for the sound effects. And when the action finally begins to build, it is punctuated with plot twists that underscore the complexities involved.

While ultimately enjoyable to view, the movie is ultimately less action and more drama, and the more realistic for that reason.

I saw this film in my local Tesco store, the misses saw Sean Bean on the cover and before I knew it, it was coming down the conveyor belt. I was quite impressed with this movie, considering I had not seen it advertised previous. It has a lot of action and some of the stunts are better placed in one of the bigger US flicks so was really impressed by those. Sean has such a natural ease at playing these sorts of characters, and almost felt sympathy for both the hunter and the hunted as the film progressed. There are also a couple of other recognisable stars which almost play a lesser role considering their wider film experience, this was quite an interesting casting approach. We both agree that it was money well spent, but will probably go for a softer more light hearted movie in the weeks to come, good insightful viewing though.

This move pleasantly surprised me. I was expecting a rather mindless 'lets get the terrorists' themed action film but was instead treated to a film that, to a limited extent, tried to explore the motivations of the main characters whilst still maintaining the feel and pace of an action movie.

On the action side, it was quite good. The fight scenes felt quite real and were not over the top but still managed to have quite an impact. Where the film fell short however, was the other side, in the explaining motivations. It almost seemed to me that a 30-45min chunk of the film was left out in the middle. The part of the movie that drew me in the most was the bomber and how outside influences as well as his own personal feelings pushed him in the direction he ended up going in but, it needed more of that. As, to me at least, I couldn't attach myself to the leaps he made along the way which overall, ruined what would have otherwise been a very very interesting exploration of the subject.

Perhaps I'm asking too much of an action orientated film, but, I think the film makers in this instance, were doing the same.

A British film about suicide bombers in London is most likely to be too dark (and a little too much like real life) to be a mainstream success, so many people may be forgiven for never hearing about Cleanskin.

Sean Bean plays a Secret Service agent on the trail of a suicide bomber cell in Britain. What could be quite a clichéd film actually turns out pretty good. It's partly divided up into two separate stories - one detailing Sean's quest to track down the cell and the other showing the terrorists themselves. Perhaps the best part of the film even relates to the terrorists. While Sean is your typical no-nonsense tough guy (think Liam Neeson in the Taken films), the terrorists are actually pretty well thought out characters - no 'True Lies' clichéd Arab terrorists here. It takes something pretty well written to make you have sympathy with a terrorist one minute, then be revolted by his actions the next, plus even weave in a convincing love story into the mix.

I won't go into too many details about the film's plot, as there are a few twists and turns you might not see coming. Just rest assured, if you're looking for a decent action/drama (with plenty of splendid shots of London from above!) then give Sean and co a go.

A great performance from not only Sean but also the girl (Tuppence?), and it was nice to see Peter Polycarpou back on our screen!

cleanskin will appeal to a wide audience, not just those who are still recovering from 7/7 (which i couldn't stop thinking about whilst watching) and it's helpful seeing the side from the "good guy" and the side from the "bad guy".

having lived in London when i was younger, it was nice to see some of the landmarks i visited as a kid, so it seems they really went out of their way to keep the realism in the film. it could have easily been filmed in a film studio but it wasn't, which makes it home more for me.

Still the scenes linger in the memory after i watched them.